User blog:Mothman Historian/My Introduction To The Mothman
I first found out about MothMan in late Middle School while taking the semester performance test known as 'The West Test' which no longer even exists. They got rid of it in favor of another similar test done on computers with a different name. One of the English questions involved reading an article about The Scarberry and Mallette MothMan sighting and then answering questions. It even featured a photo of Bob Roach's MothMan Statue. Growing up in West Virginia as a fan of Horror Movies and monsters, I was amazed that something like this had been said to have happened in my state. I was excited that we had our own mascot, our own monster and that the design was so cool. There is something to be said about flying creatures, a certain primal fear of airborne predators that has been evolved into the human brain. I remember turning to the other students in the room after the test was finished and asking something along the lines of 'Isn't that MothMan thing interesting?' to which they all seemed to reply 'Whatever' or 'Oh, that thing? Yeah, I've seen that before'. They didn't seem to care about it as much as I did. I'd found a new thing to be fascinated by, a new thing to represent West Virginia, but before long I fell back into my usual obsessions such as movies, video games and so on. I had the idea of MothMan in my head but I didn't focus much on it until early High School when I went down to the school library and happened to find a bunch of books about the MothMan. These included books like: Jeff Wamsley's 'Behind The Red Eyes' and 'The Truth Behind The Legend' as well as 'Mothman and other curious encounters by Loren Coleman'. I checked out the books and read them in class and wrote about them in my journals. I drew tons pictures of The MothMan and my new obsession was born. It wasn't long until I began annoying the other students in the classroom with it, trying to start up conversations about the creature or just telling them about what I'd read. That's when my friend Brandon told me his story of witnessing The MothMan. I took interest in it and wrote it down immediately in my journal, asking him questions and quoting him directly. (I've posted my secondhand account of Brandon's Story on this wiki in another blog post) After asking all the people in the classroom if they'd seen the MothMan, Brandon seemed to be the only one. The students, just as before, didn't want to talk about it. No one seemed to care about MothMan but me. After completely reading the library books I checked out, writing about MothMan in my journal a ton and drawing the creature over and over, I once again moved on to other obsessions. Out of sight, out of mind. I'd probably only occasionally bring him up when It was necessary or talk about it when he was mentioned. It wasn't until senior year of High School that I truly returned to The MothMan. Just as the day had fully turned to night, February 9th 2016, the power went out, pitch black. It was a cold snowy night, No television, no internet, no light, nothing. I went through the house and got a flashlight. For hours, I sat there in the dark moving my flashlight along the walls and waiting for the power to come back on. In that time, the idea of The MothMan suddenly returned to me, in the form of a gripping primal fear. After hearing noises from outside and through the house which really just amount to nothing, I felt paranoia, anxiety, hysteria and just generally felt as if I was being tortured as I awaited for the lights to come back on. When the lights eventually did come back on, I couldn't stop thinking about MothMan and I couldn't shake the weird feeling. There was no school that day or the next, it was canceled due to the snow. I began looking up stuff about MothMan on the internet, I remember feeling weird all night, I felt as if in a trance probably due to sleep deprivation. I found stuff about him on Wikipedia and on this website, Wikia, as individual pages but not as a whole wiki. Later that night, when I was finally time to go to sleep, I had various dreams or nightmares about the MothMan as I drifted in and out of consciousness. I'd see wings, red eyes, shadows and silhouettes as I lay trying to go to sleep. I'd constantly be in a strange state between awake and asleep. My dreams and usually weird to begin with. They usually had no rhyme or reason and just involve random concepts, scenes and colors. Adding the concept of a flying creature didn't help and I couldn't think of anything else. Finally, the thing that ended my strange MothMan dreams was a revelation that I had at the end of my dream as I woke up. I saw a webpage with a black background and white text. In my own voice, as a inner thought, I heard 'The MothMan Wiki'. I'm not saying this means anything more than an idea coming to me in a dream. People in Point Pleasant during the sightings in 1966 through 1967 had dreams about the MothMan too but that really could mean nothing more than they were afraid and thinking about it. I understand that dreams are fictional and just a delusion of the mind. Its like how the author Mary Shelly came up with Frankenstein in a dream, they allow the mind to the think and come up with ideas. In the morning, I thought it over. I was unsure if I should create The MothMan Wiki, If there was enough information and if I really wanted to associate myself with the thing plaguing my dreams at night and spend more time obsessing on it. The answer of course, is yes. I created The MothMan Wikia on February 10th 2016 and worked on it all day. I was concerned at first that people would think I actually believed in the MothMan, So I tried to make it clear that I view it as interesting Folk Lore and not as fact, while still remaining impartial in writing articles. I, once again, annoyed people by steering every conversation into being about MothMan and taking about it nonstop. I'd constantly draw it on the whiteboards in class and I even printed flyers advertising The MothMan Wiki and placed them around the school, sticking them to lockers and such, They took them all down within a day. The library got new books in about MothMan, I checked them all out, including the old ones I'd previously read. Then finally, on April 3rd 2016, I went to The Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, and bought most of the same books I'd been reading, meaning that now instead of checking them out, I could own them. (I made a blog post about my trip to Point Pleasant ) I wore MothMan clothing from the gift shop to school and basically turned all my art projects in class into MothMan related. MothMan seems to be the 'Prompt' for my life. The other students never did care and I could never make them care or relate to them in any way, they had different interests like usual and whenever I brought it up they'd focus on the fact that MothMan is fictional saying things like 'MothMan's not real' as if that means anything. I respond with 'Yeah, Whats your point? Neither is Batman and hes still awesome'. A character doesn't have to be realistic to be good. I like my reality real and my fiction fictional. MothMan is an important part of West Virginia Art and Folk Lore and the closest thing to culture we'll ever have here. He was born through paranoia and hysteria, just like The MothMan Wiki. I use it as my own personal reference point and hopefully other people who stumble across it will do the same. Through this page, I attempt to preserve the legend of the MothMan and hopefully educate others about my favorite obsession. I Am The Mothman - A Poem: "Whenever your in danger, the Mothman shall arrive. But hes not there to save you, He'll just watch your demise. You'll never see him coming, expect for his red eyes. When your in West Virginia, You better watch the skies. He is the omen of your death, He will be the last one left. Catch a glance, He'll take your breath. If you see him you may die, watch in horror as he flies. He's not the cause make no mistake, warning chaos in his wake. He will fly beside your car, but he will never travel far. Point Pleasant now knows his name, the tragedy within his fame. Silver bridges doomed to fall, was he here to tell us all? Will The Mothman yet return? Are these mountains set to burn?" Category:Blog posts